Congress bans federal officials from betting on their own policy decisions
H.R. 7004 — Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026 · Filed by Ritchie Torres (D-NY) · 45 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 9, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill makes it illegal for federal elected officials, congressional staff, political appointees, and executive-branch employees to trade prediction market contracts (bets on future political or policy outcomes) when they possess or could reasonably obtain material nonpublic information about those outcomes through their official duties. The ban targets insider trading in political prediction markets—preventing officials from profiting on advance knowledge of government decisions.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a straightforward prohibition on a specific form of insider trading—federal officials trading prediction market contracts on the basis of material nonpublic information obtained through their official duties. This is a standard conflict-of-interest and insider-trading control.
What the text implies
- The bill does not define enforcement mechanisms, penalties, or which agency enforces the prohibition—implementation details are absent, creating potential gaps in compliance and deterrence.
- The phrase 'may reasonably obtain' in subsection (a)(2) is subjective and may create litigation over what information an official could have accessed, potentially leading to disputes over enforcement.
- The bill applies to all Executive agency employees, a very broad class that may include millions of federal workers with varying levels of access to material information, raising questions about proportionality and practical enforcement.
- Prediction markets themselves remain unregulated in most U.S. jurisdictions; this bill does not establish regulatory authority over the platforms or contracts themselves, only restricts who may trade them.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens benefit from a reduction in conflicts of interest and insider trading by government officials. Officials trading on advance knowledge of policy decisions they influence creates a perverse incentive structure and undermines public trust in government impartiality. The prohibition aligns official incentives with the public interest rather than personal financial gain.
Named in the bill
Federal elected officials, House of Representatives, Senate, Executive agencies, Prediction market platforms, Political appointees
Where it stands
45 cosponsors: 45 Democrats.
- Jan 9, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 9, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on House Administration and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on House…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
7 lobbying clients named this bill on 7 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $390,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 14 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 86% of bills with at least one filing.
Ritchie Torres, the sponsor, reported $758,550 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma — $80,000 on 1 filing
- Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians — $80,000 on 1 filing
- Boyd Gaming Corporation — $60,000 on 1 filing
- Boyd Gaming Corporation — $60,000 on 1 filing
- St Regis Mohawk Tribe — $50,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 19, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,741 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 19, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress bans federal officials from betting on their own policy decisions” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr7004 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.